note -- I wanted to see something with this paper. So, I adapted what I handed out to the staff and elders for my proposed Sunday Service and turned it in for this class. The specific assignment was to write a hypothetical first speech at a church we were just hired to restore to quality. Curious, that was my goal with my work at my real church. Didn't get that job, even when I was trying to volunteer. Got an A on this, however, with exceedingly supportive comments. This led to a conflict of course. What do I do when Seminary professors, with both academic and practical experience like no one's business, tell me I'm doing great and have a worthwhile voice while elders and church staff, who generally have neither really, tell me otherwise? I learn humility, that's what I do. And great lessons on spiritual warfare. God is in charge, through and in all. The theology expressed here did get a chance in part... it's the core behind the Stations of the Cross stuff I did.

A Vision for the Church

Thank you so very much for allowing me this small bit of time to begin to share with you all what is on my heart. Although I know that the road has been bumpy recently, I genuinely believe that God is truly working in the lives of each one of you in wonderful and exciting ways, and through you he is working in the life of this community. I don’t know all of you really well, but my brief interactions reveal a group of people who are amazingly gifted, and whose passion to seek after Christ is truly evident. Gifts and passion, however, cannot exist in isolation. One of the greatest struggles in the history of the church has been to discover how the people’s various passions, goals, desires, and talents can be used so as to most effectively communicate and reflect the glory of the Triune God. Over the next half an hour or so, I would like to present to you all how I understand what a church is and can be. I would like to describe my understanding of the church as it is revealed in three different roles a church plays. The first is the ministry of the church, that is, how we are communicating Christ in us to one another. The second is the mission of the church, namely, how we are communicating Christ in us to those outside of our immediate community. And finally, I would like to discuss the worship of the church, which is how we are reflecting Christ in us back to the Triune God.

I believe that the goal of any ministry of the church is to facilitate growth and maturation in Christ. The maturation of any Christian to a further and deeper relationship with the Triune God requires more than simply devotion, it does in fact require training, teaching, and example. People need to be taught what Christianity is, what Christianity consists of, and what it means to be a Christian. To be ignorant of basic Christian doctrines and practices is a great cause of nominality. This nominality, which is being a Christian in name though not in reality, does not come through a lack of dedication but oftentimes comes through ignorance of something more, ignorance of how to gain a hold of that “something more”, and inspiration to seek after that maturation which is vital for our lives in this world. As a mature community we can gather together, learning the depths of the Christian life and belief not only in teaching, and not only in practice, but in a setting in which teaching and practice can be combined, interacting in a way which shows the depths of the Christian life, teaches those in the congregation to reach after the depths of the Christian life, and inspires every single Christian to continually seek an ever increasing depth in Christ, as an individual and within a community.

The foundation of these contentions is based in an understanding of the work and approach of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. Throughout Church History there have been various expressions and various emphases which show the wideness of the work that the Holy Spirit does in the life of the Church. Certainly, the message of Christ is the focus of all this work, but how this message has been expressed, and what aspects of Christian life are focused upon have shifted throughout the centuries. Current church and theological studies are now noticing an explosion of study and emphasis on the person of the Holy Spirit, beginning early in this last century. The Pentecostal movement was founded on the realization that the Christian life is not simply academic study but also contains power. Thus came new expressions, which harkened in fact to very old expressions, of speaking in tongues, of healing, of other “signs and wonders”. These expressions were and remain so dynamic that many within the movement expressed, and still express, that the activity of the Holy Spirit within the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement is higher and better than other traditions or contexts. Yet it would be fallacious to say that the Holy Spirit was not active prior to the Pentecostal revival, and indeed that the Pentecostal movement has a understanding of the fullness of the work of the Holy Spirit in this world.

The tendency of the Pentecostal movement is to focus the work of the Holy Spirit on certain “charismatic” gifts (i.e., speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing). Yet, throughout history and indeed in the New Testament itself, the focus of living the Christian life has not been the more visible “signs”, but rather a continual growth in Christ and ever-closer approximation of Christ in our own lives. This has been traditionally called “sanctification” in the Western Church, and in the more theological developed Eastern Church this is called “deification”. The signs and wonders of the Pentecostal movement, then, can be fit in and supported only in so far as they promote edification of the community and the growth of the individual believer in purity of heart, and focus on God.

It is the thought, then, that what the Pentecostal movement has begun in the renewal of emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit has in some ways languished because they have limited how the Holy Spirit works, focusing so much on signs and wonders that they forget that the Holy Spirit is in the church to mature us in a full sense that we may become the reflection of the image of God to this world in every way. My goal is to seek to find this fullness of the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church by allowing a context for this exploration. Considering the various expressions of the work of the Spirit, it is my goal to explore the fullness of what this means, understanding prior expressions of the church in a great number of various traditions, and finding a way to integrate these expressions in how the Triune God wants to work in the life of this church.

By developing a small leadership team we will have focus, but by retaining a broad participation we will draw in those who have appropriate gifts, helping you all to grow in your own spiritual life through ministering to the community, and helping you to grow in your vision for and participation in the church. Thus, this becomes not only a formational tool, but also a morale boost. It is this “morale boost” in fact that will best relate this to other aspects of the church. Those who are not excited about Christianity will limit their own involvement, so by engaging each other, challenging and motivating towards further growth we will find this vitality reaching into current small groups, encouraging each of us to further pursue topics within specific training classes, and overall boosting participation by motivating each other to action.

All programs and ministries suffer from a lack of passion and understanding of the Spirit in each person’s life. The higher the morale, the higher the level and quality of participation that will be found throughout the church in every area. It will motivate us to shape our lives so as to most adequately be seeking Christ in all of life, in private and public practice. As we motivate, encourage, and challenge we will not only grow in our intellectual understanding but will also, hopefully, feel the demand that this intellectual knowledge be made practical through active participation in small groups and other ministries. Knowing is doing. As we learn and grow in Christ, this knowledge must be reflected in how we live our lives. John Wesley wrote, "First, God works; therefore you can work: Secondly, God works, therefore you must work." [1]

This understanding of ministry is not simply limited to the typical “religious” activities, rather I believe that ministry is holistic, encompassing not only the heart and mind, but also the body. As we seek to discover the various gifts and passions of the church we may realize that some of you are truly talented in helping with physical or practical needs. My interest then is not simply in discovering and developing the various “spiritual” gifts, but also in using your other talents, hobbies, interests, and vocational skills in the life of the community, binding us together through mutual dependence and getting each one of you excited about how God has already shaped you to do a wonderful work in the life of the church.

This of course means that I do not have a clear picture of what the specific ministries of the church will look like. Rather I understand that the specific ministries will not necessarily reflect my own passions in every case, but will reflect in an ever increasing way the passions and gifts of each one of you. The leaders of the various ministries will be “those who do the work, those active in serving others, those taking the lead in doing what needs to be done.” [2] The goal of the pastoral staff is not to run the church ourselves, but rather to aid and assist you all in discovering who God made you to be and how all that you are can be used in the life of this church. Those who lead will be those who serve. In addition to encouraging and facilitating this maturation as a community, it is essential that we do not only challenge and teach, but it is also equally essential that we inspire to action, encourage to carry on, and motivate to continued growth.

In Romans 1:5-6 Paul discusses being himself called to "call people from among the gentiles,' while stating to those in Rome that they are "called to belong to Jesus Christ." As a community, Christians are charged to avoid giving offense, [3] to be models of Godly living, [4] to and be prepared to respond to any notice taken. [5] Churches are the goal of evangelism, evangelism is not the goal of the church. Paul encouraged the churches to pray for his mission and support him financially. They are to facilitate accessions to the community, not by so much by active community evangelism, but by an attractive behavior and a responsiveness to inquiry. The mission of Paul is to search out, pursue, confront and urge people to accept the Word, while he feels that the mission of the church is to attract, allure, respond and receive. [6] The church is called to indirectly involve itself in evangelism through support and reception. It appears in Paul that the responsibility for evangelism is not left to the community but to individual believers, alone or collectively, directed by God and assisted by church communities. [7]

Evangelism in the church is not its purpose, but rather an effect that results from the edification of Christians within it. This concept is essentially circular. Evangelism is a byproduct of edification in the church, while churches are the goal of evangelism. Yet this results not in a static body, but rather one which spirals out into an ever increasing sphere of influence and activity. With this model we find the gradual growth of a very dedicated and well-founded body of believers, which Paul felt would eventually encompass the entire world.

. In Romans 12:1-2, Paul tells us that we are to offer our bodies as "living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God," and that this is our "spiritual act of worship." Our worship to God is not fulfilled by an act of sacrifice or by saying the proper words, but instead by the acting out of his truth within us. We are called to constantly maintain our worship to him in all we do, say, and think. In the New Testament the vocabulary of worship is used remarkably infrequently in the descriptions of Christian meetings. The whole activity of Christians can be described as the service of God and that they are engaged throughout their lives in worshipping him.

The vocabulary is not applied in any specific way to Christian meetings. To call the purpose of the church worship is without New Testament precedent. [8] Christian meetings are not said to take place specifically in order to worship God. The spiritual or rational worship which Christians are called upon to make requires them to offer their whole selves, bodies included, to God as living sacrifices, dedicated and acceptable to him. [9] God does not need, nor desire, our service to be directed exclusively towards him. The church is not designed to be a man to God activity, but rather God wishes to speak and minister to us. We should be engaging in worship while involved in community life, but only as far as we do in the entirety of our lives. Christians are already worshipping God, acceptably or unacceptably, in whatever they are doing, and participating in specific church responses has no special bearing on this worship.

It cannot be denied, however, that we are to engage in activities directed toward God when we meet together. These acts of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving are described throughout the New Testament. These activities can and should not simply be reflective of the traditions of the past, but being informed by the past we should reflect our own selves in response to what God is doing in our lives and in the life of the community. In understanding this we should respond in such a way as encompasses the depth of our being, whether this be through music of all sorts, art, or whatever way in which you best respond and offer thanksgiving to anything good in your life. God wants us to respond with who we are and who he made us to be, not prescribing to certain “religious” activities which while instructive at some points also serve to draw barriers between what we do at church and what we do in the rest of our lives.

A major concern for Paul in the worshipping community is the idea of unity. In worshipping together, celebrating what God is doing, we simply cannot foster or encourage any kind of anger or fracturing of the community. It is with this idea that I understand the importance of communion. I believe that when Paul states in 1 Corinthians 11:29 that we must properly understand the body of the Lord he is exhorting us to understand the importance of unity and equality when we gather. Communion is just that, a time of honoring the work of Christ, not only in our individual lives, but also in the lives of each and every one of us as individuals but especially as a community.

Everett Ferguson wrote, “The unity is already given by the Lord as part of what he has done for human salvation in order to achieve an eternal community. The human task is not to achieve unity among themselves, but to keep the unity already created.” [10] We can, and will, have disagreements over much of the specifics of how we are to move forward as a community, but rather than letting these issues bring in disorder, we must continually at every step act in the way of love that Paul spoke of in 1 Corinthians 13. It is the love and unity as a community which will bind us together and allow our worship to be truly pleasing to God.

Thank you again for allowing me to join you in the wonderful community here. I am excited to do all that I can to help us as a church grow in understanding of how the Spirit is working in our lives, and working alongside each one of you as we seek to grow in our maturity in Christ and in our ability to truly reflect his work and life to all that see us. May God truly bless us as we seek to do his will in our lives and in the life of this church.

[1] John Wesley; [a representative collection of his writings], Edited by Albert C. Outler (New York, Oxford University Press, 1964), 138.

[2] Everett Ferguson, The Church of Christ (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 296.

[3] 1 Cor. 10:23ff

[4] 1 Thess. 1:4ff.

[5] Col. 4:5.

[6] Paul Bowers, “Church and Mission in Paul,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 44 (1991): 93.

[7] Bowers, 107.

[8] IH Marshall, “How Far Did the Early Christians Worship God,” Churchman 99 (1985): 217.

[9] Robert Banks, Paul’s Idea of Community, revised edition (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994), 91.

[10] Ferguson, 406.